By Anita Hassan :
May 3, 2013
: Updated: May 24, 2013 1:25pm

Just south of downtown Houston, spread across 1,300 acres of land, sits a place that former first lady Barbara Bush once called "Houston's gift to the world'' -- the Texas Medical Center.

The world's largest medical complex, the Texas Medical Center draws nearly 7.1 million patients annually, both from around the country and internationally. It employes more than 92,000 people and is home to a plethora of breakthrough scientific discoveries, never before seen surgeries and some of the country's best hospitals and physicians.

Executive Vice President of the Texas Medical Center Ed Tucker, says that what makes the Texas Medical Center special is that it not only hospitals and clinics that provide treatment, but institutions committed to teaching and research as well.

"It's an amazing place when you put all of those things together," he said.

Inside the bustling 54-institution medical metropolis is the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, one of the world's most premier cancer institutions ,where more clinical trials are performed than anywhere in the country.

About a 10 minute walk away from M.D. Anderson, are hospitals where two of the world's greatest heart surgeons, Dr. Michael E. DeBakey and Dr. Denton A. Cooley, performed pioneering heart surgeries.

At the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, Cooley performed the nation's first successful human heart transplant - and blocks from there is the Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center, where amongst DeBakey directed the first multiple-organ transplants from one donor to four recipients. Both hospitals are leaders in cardiovascular research, treatment and care.

With 12 campuses, Memorial Hermann Hospital is the largest not-for-profit health system in Southeast Texas. It has hospitals in the medical center, as well as far north as The Woodlands and west into Katy. One of the institutions's most notable patients was Former Arizona U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. She received treatment at TIRR Memorial Hermann, a rehabilitation hospital, after being struck in the head by a bullet during a shooting just outside Tucson.

Patients coming to the Texas Medical Center can also receive care at Harris Health System, the county's public health district, which includes three hospitals and 16 community health centers as well as the area's busiest emergency center, according to its website.

The Texas Medical Center also brings innovative surgical techniques and treatments for children. In 2012, a team of surgeons at Texas Children's Hospital, one of the nation's largest pediatric hospitals, performed a six-hour open-heart surgery on a newborn girl born with her partially outside her body.

Two of Shriners Hospitals for Children are part of the Texas Medical Center, with one location in Houston. The second location in Galveston houses a world-renown pediatric burn center where children from all over the world have received treatment.

All in all, Tucker said there it's hard to find an institution in the Texas Medical Center that hasn't provided a significant contribution not just to not just their own organizations, but often to the entire nation and beyond.

"It is a remarkable place because of the highly motivated people who come here to teach and to study and to deliver care," he said. "That's really the special quality at the Texas Medical Center, so many passionate professionals that are here."